Ok, so I have a Dell XPS8500 that I love and have upgraded over the years. I changed the GPU to a gtx970 and upgraded the power supply, put it all into an awesome new case, upgraded to Windows 10 and everything is just great.
But tonight, it died. And it was completely my fault, and I know every person here will want to kill me cause I broke all the rules. Let me say, I KNOW I'm not supposed to do what I'm about to tell, but I just was being lazy and so please, feel free to hate me for it, but please try to be kind anyway cause I feel so terrible without anyone's judgment. Here's what happened:
The case I have has clear window on one side so I can see the components. I saw it was getting a little dusty, so I took off the side and pulled out my compressed air to just give it a quick spray. I KNOW I should have powered down, but it was just a QUICK little spray, so I didn't (yes, hate on me.). I also KNOW that I'm supposed to spray a couple times away from the components to check the nozzle before using it, but I didn't (hate me please). I usually do. Today, I just didn't. Little did I know that when I had walked out of the room for a few seconds, my 1 yr old son had come in and sucked on the strawlike nozzle and got saliva all in it. So when I sprayed my components, I got saliva all over the top of the GPU and a very very tiny little bit onto the motherboard. That's all it took. It was in sleep mode, but in just a few seconds, the fan kicked into high gear for half a second and the PC suddenly shut down completely.
I tried to wipe it, then let it dry, and after an hour, I tried to turn it on and the PC gets power just fine, everything lights up just fine, but it doesn't boot at all (screen stays off and disk light doesn't blink) and the fan whirrs at full speed until I finally just pull the plug.
So, I'm 99% sure that I need a new motherboard. Am I right? I had wanted to upgrade, but stayed away when I read about how complicated it is. Still, I feel like I can replace it for much cheaper than buying a new PC, especially since the Core i7 and GTX970 and my other components are still really nice quality and there's no need to change them. However I have some questions.
1. This is obvious, but I am right that I killed my motherboard? It got on the GPU too, but since it was in standby, I somehow feel my GPU was probably ok....am I totally a fool to think that? Actually more saliva got onto the top of my GPU than the motherboard, so should I expect it to be dead too? Is there a way to check at all?
2. How hard is replacing the motherboard? I've read it's the hardest thing to do. I've replaced the case and most parts, but I stayed away from replacing the motherboard cause this is what I've heard. However my brother has built several PC's from scratch and he's never said anything about difficulty with motherboards. He has just about the same experience with PCs as I do.
4. Is ram compatibility a big issue? I've seen people always make comments about how your motherboard has to be compatible with the Ram (I've got 16gb)...I'll have to check what kind of ram it is, but is this really as difficult as people make it sound, or should my ram just be plug and play with most boards?
5. How possible is it that any other components, like the GPU were also damaged? Never had a PC die from a short before - is there a potential it has also damaged RAM, CPU, obviously GPU, etc?
6. What happens to Windows 10? I had upgraded from 8 that was preinstalled when I bought it, so I don't have a product key. When I considered upgrading the motherboard before, a Windows rep told me that I would have to uninstall the key using command prompt or something like that, but since I can't boot on this PC, is the key just lost forever and I have to buy a new license?
7. Anything else I should know or be careful about? Am I right to assume that I can probably fix this for way less than just buying a brand new PC with 16gb ram and Core i7, etc?
Again, I feel like killing myself, so please feel free to hate me for being so stupid and doing what any computer user should know (and I do too, I just got cocky).... but please don't be too harsh, as I already feel bad enough........ any help is appreciated.
But tonight, it died. And it was completely my fault, and I know every person here will want to kill me cause I broke all the rules. Let me say, I KNOW I'm not supposed to do what I'm about to tell, but I just was being lazy and so please, feel free to hate me for it, but please try to be kind anyway cause I feel so terrible without anyone's judgment. Here's what happened:
The case I have has clear window on one side so I can see the components. I saw it was getting a little dusty, so I took off the side and pulled out my compressed air to just give it a quick spray. I KNOW I should have powered down, but it was just a QUICK little spray, so I didn't (yes, hate on me.). I also KNOW that I'm supposed to spray a couple times away from the components to check the nozzle before using it, but I didn't (hate me please). I usually do. Today, I just didn't. Little did I know that when I had walked out of the room for a few seconds, my 1 yr old son had come in and sucked on the strawlike nozzle and got saliva all in it. So when I sprayed my components, I got saliva all over the top of the GPU and a very very tiny little bit onto the motherboard. That's all it took. It was in sleep mode, but in just a few seconds, the fan kicked into high gear for half a second and the PC suddenly shut down completely.
I tried to wipe it, then let it dry, and after an hour, I tried to turn it on and the PC gets power just fine, everything lights up just fine, but it doesn't boot at all (screen stays off and disk light doesn't blink) and the fan whirrs at full speed until I finally just pull the plug.
So, I'm 99% sure that I need a new motherboard. Am I right? I had wanted to upgrade, but stayed away when I read about how complicated it is. Still, I feel like I can replace it for much cheaper than buying a new PC, especially since the Core i7 and GTX970 and my other components are still really nice quality and there's no need to change them. However I have some questions.
1. This is obvious, but I am right that I killed my motherboard? It got on the GPU too, but since it was in standby, I somehow feel my GPU was probably ok....am I totally a fool to think that? Actually more saliva got onto the top of my GPU than the motherboard, so should I expect it to be dead too? Is there a way to check at all?
2. How hard is replacing the motherboard? I've read it's the hardest thing to do. I've replaced the case and most parts, but I stayed away from replacing the motherboard cause this is what I've heard. However my brother has built several PC's from scratch and he's never said anything about difficulty with motherboards. He has just about the same experience with PCs as I do.
4. Is ram compatibility a big issue? I've seen people always make comments about how your motherboard has to be compatible with the Ram (I've got 16gb)...I'll have to check what kind of ram it is, but is this really as difficult as people make it sound, or should my ram just be plug and play with most boards?
5. How possible is it that any other components, like the GPU were also damaged? Never had a PC die from a short before - is there a potential it has also damaged RAM, CPU, obviously GPU, etc?
6. What happens to Windows 10? I had upgraded from 8 that was preinstalled when I bought it, so I don't have a product key. When I considered upgrading the motherboard before, a Windows rep told me that I would have to uninstall the key using command prompt or something like that, but since I can't boot on this PC, is the key just lost forever and I have to buy a new license?
7. Anything else I should know or be careful about? Am I right to assume that I can probably fix this for way less than just buying a brand new PC with 16gb ram and Core i7, etc?
Again, I feel like killing myself, so please feel free to hate me for being so stupid and doing what any computer user should know (and I do too, I just got cocky).... but please don't be too harsh, as I already feel bad enough........ any help is appreciated.
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